Away From It All

There are few places to truly get away from modern life. The desire to do so, however, increases with each day, each passing interaction with the hustle and grind of a concrete world. The juxtaposition between said life and those tiny, precious pockets of wilderness was no clearer than after a trip to what was referred to as “the big smoke;” dental appointments that cannot be booked in small towns, grocery carts filled with products that are downright impossible to find or abhorrently expensive in a community of 1,000, last-minute supplies to make it through the final push of preserving season. Crowds pushing past one another, heads down and eyes glued to their phones; attention diverted to individual worlds.

 

Around two hours of driving later, arrival home was marked by a pulsing headache and tense muscles. The rapidly shortening days left a short window of opportunity remaining to sneak away to the bush, as several tags still burnt a hole in my jacket pocket. It wasn’t much time, but what a welcome reprieve from the day’s events to trade pavement pounding for backroad adventures.

Heavy evening fog settled across the cut block as the truck rocked its way over the old corduroy road. A gentle breeze hit my back; far from ideal conditions to work the area the way I had initially intended, but it was worth a try. There is something about a hunt like this – quiet and unbothered without the weekend crowds, a stillness lingering in the air. Remarkably different from the prior events of the day. Only chittering squirrels in the trees and a lone goose traversing the swiftly darkening evening sky, nowhere for human eyes to be but up, flitting across the treeline in hopes that a dark silhouette would appear from the shadows.

 

With all senses focused on one singular thing but no thing at the same time, the mind can really wrap itself around how special it is to find pockets of the bush like this. No background roar of the highway to be heard. Touched by man’s hand, of course, evidence of industry all around the logged block; but released back to the wild once again. Despite heading back home with the same pocket of uncut tags, it was the perfect way to get away from life’s responsibilities for a couple hours.